Three Queens
by link no miko
Summary: When all is darkness and stars, the three queens come to take him home.


**Three Queens**

-

Heavily based off Heather Dale's song _Three Queens_, of which everyone should go out and buy her CD. Basically just tried to apply it to Link's life. Yes, I know all three women in this aren't technically queens. No, it doesn't really matter that they aren't.

Not the happiest with this fic, but eh.

As always, comments and criticisms are welcome.

-

The stars above are beautiful, he idly notes. Muted beneath the thin layer of cloud, beneath the haze over his own eyes, but still they shine so beautiful. Points of silver that dance in the sky, glittering brightly; the faerie guardians of Hyrule.

Points of silence when all around him had been music.

He raises his hand, blotting out the stars as he tries to reach for them. If he could grab one, would it protect him as it did Hyrule? Tell him the secrets only the goddesses knew? Tell him why Hyrule's, why the goddesses', most beloved child lay, night after night, in a field of red with the fallen bodies of enemies all around him?

Tell him this was what he'd been made for and would die for?

His hand falls back to his side and he closes his eyes, letting the warm wind blow over his face and play with his hair. He can imagine the wind as faeries, like back when he was innocent, imagine how they used to tease the children and mess their hair or poke them. How there was always laughter in those lights.

There is no laughter in the lights he sees now, shining coldly above him.

And when the lights merge together, the wind changing around him into a soft song, he wonders that he didn't like the frigid silence better.

"Never that," the soft voice says, warm hands running over his cheeks and up into his hair. Warm arms surround him, holding him close. "You've never been one for silence."

He nods and buries his face into her chest as she rocks him back and forth, words of nonsense filling the air around him. It's so much easier to just lose himself in the feeling of her arms, a feeling he'd never known as he grew. His hand itches, the Triforce mark tingling gently along with her words.

"It will be better in the morning, child."

"What if there is no morning?"

Her smile is bright, like the moon on a clear night. "Do you think me so cruel?"

He shakes his head no, but his secrets are never secrets from her, and she knows his heart's true answer.

_You are the cruelest of all mothers._

_You are home._

The arms around him melt away and the stars unmerge themselves, and a kiss is placed softly against his forehead. Her lips are cool and leave the feel of raindrops, but he knows it's not raining and won't be when he opens his eyes.

"Until the morning."

And the stars shine silently above him, silver against the black backdrop of the sky, and he breathes out slowly, lying in the grass.

Time passes, as it always does, the stars dancing across the sky above him. His skin slowly begins to burn; he knows he's caught fever. He doesn't know if it's because of his wounds or because of the goddess.

It's still dark out when she comes for him, soft silk brushing his face as her skirts bunch around the legs she's placed his head on. Her presence is different from Farore's, softer and more gentle, infinitely weaker. But he takes solace in the feel of her because he knows her, can see and feel and touch her, knows her more than a name in a legend and a feeling in his heart.

Her hair falls over her shoulder and brushes against his forehead, cool and slightly damp.

"Hey," he says.

"…Hey," she says back.

"Are you here to taunt me, too?"

Her smile is sad. Her smile is always sad.

"Do you think so little of us, Link?"

He sighs and raises a hand to touch her cheek. She leans into the touch, skin cool and smooth. He can't see her for the light behind her, but thinks she must look beautiful to anyone else, as she sits beneath the stars and cradles her lover.

"Let me help," she says softly. "Don't keep it all to yourself."

He pulls his hand away, and she doesn't try to stop him or pull it back. If she were real, he knows she would have.

"Link, don't bar me from you…"

"What can I do now?"

She blinks, confused, and if he hadn't known before, he would know now she's only an illusion. He raises his hand one last time and runs it through her hair, eyes soft and sad as he looks at her shadowed face. All the battles, the victories and losses, the fear and anxiousness and hope fade away with her shadow, back into the silent sky as it passes lazily overhead. His vision blurs and his cheeks feel damp—the rain Farore didn't bring, that Zelda gave instead.

Somewhere, he knows a woman has woken in her sleep, tears on her own face as her heart rips in two.

But for him, he has only the stars in the slowly lightening sky, the faeries dancing their silent vigil over the land he helps them protect.

The sun kisses the horizon when the last one comes to him. She doesn't appear with the cold silver light of the stars, nor with the soft golden light he knows so well. Her head is high as she walks towards him from the east, eyes soft and full of love, and he smiles as she kneels beside him.

"Have you come so you can leave me, too?"

He thinks he sees her eyes shimmer, but that can't be, because illusions don't cry.

"I've come to take you home, Link."

He closes his eyes and sighs. "I was wondering how long it would take."

She reaches out and pats his bangs, fixing his hat so it lies flat along his head. He thinks that's an odd thing to do if he's going to die, and then remembers all those bodies he's seen laid out and knows she does it more for the sake of others than for him.

"They talked to me, before you came." She's one of them, so he sees no point in explaining, and she sits and watches him, eyes so sad. "Is it always like this?"

"Oh, Link." And her arms surround him in a hug he remembers fondly from when he was growing up, when the other children would tease him and she'd be there for him as he railed and cried. The arms that held him back from numerous fights he knew he could win and she knew he couldn't.

"You feel different," he says, looking up past her to the sky.

"Because I'm real."

He looks at her then, blinking slowly. "There's nothing real out here."

"There's me."

"I wish that was true." He looks away, over to the sword that lies beside him, blue hilt buried in the grass. "I wanted to see her one last time before I went. Do you think she'll understand?"

"I think you can tell her that yourself."

He shakes his head but says nothing else, and she releases him as she slowly stands, pulling an instrument from her tunic as she does. He watches her, knowing what's coming and ready to face it, as he has been since the day he pulled a magic sword from a pedestal.

The melody is soft and airy, one he doesn't know but feels inside his soul. It resonates, and his hand stings where the Triforce sings in tones of light. He looks at her, watches as the two others smile at him from behind her before they vanish with the stars as the sun breaks past the tops of the trees.

"Saria…?"

She smiles at him as she lowers the flute from her lips and begins to vanish, and he reaches out towards her, not wanting to leave her behind, not like this, not with those as his last words. But she's gone with the daylight, gone like those before, and all there is is light.

And he's falling, falling, the light around him dying as arms surround him, and he sees a flash of gold, feels the touch of familiar lips before the darkness.

And a voice, cool like silver, like the stars.

"We will always take you home."


End file.
